mcgaskins
Rising Sun Member
If/when the club decides to consider an official change, I would post a poll (including a paragraph on pros and cons of each option) in the general section or landing page of the forums to see what the majority of the forum members think - one vote per person either CB, FRS, GMRS, Ham. I would NOT open it up for discussion because there will be 3-5 super passionate guys debating furiously about their opinions and overwhelm the conversation, and that will dissuade people from being honest and vote how they truly feel. It should be blind too so no one can see who votes which way. I honestly could not care which direction the club goes, but it would be nice to eventually ditch CB.
FWIW a couple years ago my buddy and I were by Santiago mine pulling some dude out of a snow drift with bald tires, and another dude came running down the side of the mountain waving his arms furiously to get our attention. He was with his wife and dog way up above at the top of Leavenworth Creek Road also stuck, and they were near tipping as they kept sliding off the trail towards the edge of the shelf. I told him we needed to finish one recovery before heading up there, but he could wait with us and ride up in my truck. He was worried about leaving his wife alone, so I gave him a GMRS radio (I keep a 4 pack for these exact situations) to keep in touch with us as we made our way up to his spot. Granted there aren't any trees in the way up there, but the radios worked perfectly over a long distance and no direct line of site. Of course a couple cheap Baofengs would have worked the same or better, but the simple form factor of a radio you just turn on and push a button is precisely what people like. Imagine if I gave him a complex ham handheld and he accidentally hit the wrong button and we lost comms? It's way, way harder on an FRS/GMRS radio especially if you had a radio and say "channel 1 and hit this button to talk" or whatever. Even if someone is scared or injured, that's going to be easier than saying "make sure you are on frequency one four five dot five niner zero...oh and broadcast on high power and don't touch ANYTHING else"
FWIW a couple years ago my buddy and I were by Santiago mine pulling some dude out of a snow drift with bald tires, and another dude came running down the side of the mountain waving his arms furiously to get our attention. He was with his wife and dog way up above at the top of Leavenworth Creek Road also stuck, and they were near tipping as they kept sliding off the trail towards the edge of the shelf. I told him we needed to finish one recovery before heading up there, but he could wait with us and ride up in my truck. He was worried about leaving his wife alone, so I gave him a GMRS radio (I keep a 4 pack for these exact situations) to keep in touch with us as we made our way up to his spot. Granted there aren't any trees in the way up there, but the radios worked perfectly over a long distance and no direct line of site. Of course a couple cheap Baofengs would have worked the same or better, but the simple form factor of a radio you just turn on and push a button is precisely what people like. Imagine if I gave him a complex ham handheld and he accidentally hit the wrong button and we lost comms? It's way, way harder on an FRS/GMRS radio especially if you had a radio and say "channel 1 and hit this button to talk" or whatever. Even if someone is scared or injured, that's going to be easier than saying "make sure you are on frequency one four five dot five niner zero...oh and broadcast on high power and don't touch ANYTHING else"